Brida

Brida was an East Anglian-born, Danish-raised Viking warrior who was the lover of Uhtred of Bebbanburg and then of Ragnar Ragnarsson.

Biography
Brida was born in East Anglia to an Anglo-Saxon family, and she was taken captive during the Great Heathen Army's invasion of England in 866. She was brought into the service of the Viking skald Ravn in Leeds, where she grew up with Earl Ragnar the Fearless' daughter Thyra Ragnarsdottir and fellow Anglo-Saxon servant Uhtred of Bebbanburg. Uhtred and Brida became lovers during their young adulthood, and, in 871, they (and, unbeknownst to them, a captive Thyra) were the only survivors of Kjartan's attack on Leeds. Brida accompanied Uhtred on his quest for vengeance, and, while she advised him to flee to Ireland or to give up his quest to regain Bebbanburg, she still accompanied him during their flight across the land. They took Ubbe Ragnarrsson's sorcerer Storri hostage with the goal of approaching Ubbe and assuring them of their innocence in Ragnar's death, for which they had been blamed by Kjartan; when this failed, they fled south to Wessex. Brida was a proud Dane who had forgotten about her Anglo-Saxon past, and she was hostile towards Christianity and the Anglo-Saxons, especially after Uhtred became a pledged servant of King Alfred the Great. Brida and Uhtred had a complicated relationship, swaying between love and disagreement, and Brida miscarried Uhtred's child while Uhtred was training West Saxon troops in the woods of Wilton.

When Ragnar Ragnarsson arrived from Ireland, Brida agreed to sail with him, but Uhtred had to part ways with his lover, as he had promised to serve Alfred for a year, and Ragnar encouraged him to keep his promise. During the five years that Brida and Uhtred were apart, Brida found a new man in Ragnar, becoming his lover. In 876, she was reunited with her former lover at the Siege of Wareham, where Uhtred was sent as an Anglo-Saxon hostage to Ragnar and Guthrum's Danes at the Danish-held town of Wareham. Brida and Ragnar were upset that Uhtred had chosen to be a Saxon over being a Dane, but they assisted him in his escape from the castle.